Nunavut health minister responds to open letter decrying care of elders in the South

The care of elders from Nunavut who are living in the South is a "shared responsibility," said Health Minister John Main — at least, that is, until Nunavut is able to build its own care homes that would allow elders to remain in the North. 

Main was responding to an open letter published in March, in which the Iqaluit-based Pairijait Tigumivik Society presented a long list of concerns it wants addressed at the Embassy West Senior Living home in Ottawa, which it said was failing Inuit residents. Forty-three elders from Nunavut are currently living at Embassy West due to a lack of appropriate care homes in Nunavut. 

Allegations in the letter included a lack of Inuktitut interpretation and improper care from staff, including leaving people in their beds for days at a time.

The letter also alleged that Inuit at the care home are not given an Inuktitut-speaking interpreter when they are sent by ambulance to hospital. 

It also accused the facility of giving residents — many of whom are expert seamstresses — childlike projects like sewing paper hearts, and calling them "ataata," meaning father, or "anaana," meaning mother, instead of their names.

Main said many of the issues in the letter fall under the jurisdiction of regulators in Ontario.

"Given the serious nature of some of the allegations in that letter, it was, I believe, appropriate for the proper regulatory authorities to do that investigation," he said. 

CBC confirmed that the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority in Ontario did an inspection of the home six days after receiving a report on March 15. The inspection "did not uncover any issues of non-compliance with the Retirement Homes Act and regulations," a spokesperson for the authority said in an email.

In terms of the cultural appropriateness of Embassy West for Nunavut elders, Main acknowledged that's a side effect of the fact that the only care available for the elders is in the South. 

"As a government we are focused on developing more capacity here in Nunavut so that we can deliver the services here in territory in the future," Main said, pointing to a long-term care facility now under construction in Rankin Inlet that's scheduled to open to residents in 2024. 

"That's the first of our, I'll call it the newer generation of facilities that we're planning to develop here in territory." 

Main said that facility would be able to accommodate higher needs patients like those currently in Ottawa. He said the government hopes to develop similar facilities in Cambridge Bay and in Iqaluit.

Speaking about the March 7 letter, Rachel Qitsualik, the Pairijait Tigumivik Society's president, said on March 14 that problems at the home came to light earlier this year when families were allowed to travel there to help with care during a COVID-19 outbreak.

"The whole issue of elder care was in such contrast to what people expect culturally," she said. "It just blew people's minds that these things were happening."